Have a Band

I like to do these things once in a while.

1. Go to the Wikipedia home page and click random article. That is your band's name.
2. Click random article again; that is your album name.
3. Click random article 15 more times; those are the tracks on your album.


Band Name: Carlos Nieto [I'm thinking we're like Yo La Tengo]
Album Name: South Wellfield First School [must be our debut album, about where we went to school]

1. Thirty Cases of Major Zeman [sounds kinda Joni Mitchellesque]
   
2. Kelly Worden [now we're getting there ... whiny emo, perhaps?]
   
3. Gallagher Group [damn, that would have been a good band name]
   
4. Paks [jeez, that sounds offensive]
   
5. Abbey Nunatak [another girlfriend track]
   
6. Johannes Tinctoris [a song about a composer? Slipping off into prog land]
   
7. Beverly Glen, Los Angeles, California [our neighborhood? We're rich and like to complain]
   
8. Polo Park Racetrack [reminds me of Jethro Tull -- sing it to the tune of "Aqualung"]
   
9. Act of Uniformity 1552 [more prog]
   
10. Ophioglossum Vulgatum [jesus, more prog]
    
11. List of Communities in Saskatchewan [I thought we were Californian; maybe we just love Saskatchewan]
    
12. Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) [cover]
    
13. Hubert Ashton Holden [sounds like a crazy scientist from the nineteenth century]
    
14. Greatest Hits 1987-1997 [is this a parody?]
    
15. Michael Roesch [Hubert Ashton Holden's archenemy, I guess]
    

It looks like I'm a prog band, or something like Steely Dan. #12 and #14 are from music, and there's a composer or two mixed in there.

On the Search for a New Librarian

The search and screen committee met to find my new boss. We've got a short list of five, two of whom I am really rooting for. They are great! It took us a couple of hours to pick them out.

I have to say, though, that there's one person on the search and screen whom I think is a jerk. He only read the cover letters, and thus didn't get that one of the applicants does any outreach (she's only the top liaison librarian on campus). He derided another librarian's decision to get a juris doctorate and not practice law.

"That's a lot of money to waste," he said.

That pissed me off. I said, "It's not too uncommon to have a law degree and not be practicing. My father has a law degree, which he needs for his job, but he's not a practicing lawyer."

I just feel like he was too flippant about a lot of stuff. On the other hand, he is pretty direct, and I think that will help in the long run. So, he's jerky, but not without his place.

Clean Water Is What?!

So, the House has approved a spending bill. This is a good thing, for it means that the government can continue to function. I'm not grumpy about that. We need for something to be passed and approved soon, otherwise it's going to be the Clinton vs. Republican Congress of about ten years ago, where the federal government was shut down due to lack of money.

The thing that rankles me was at the end of the article, where a watchdog group called Taxpayers for Common Sense is mentioned. Apparently, they look for pork barrel projects. And listed among those pork barrel projects are water cleaning programs. Uh, excuse me? Since when is ensuring that the environment is safe for both humans and wildlife wasteful and wrongful spending? I guess the oil spills should just be left the way they are, lest someone consider the money spent on the cleanup to be unfairly appropriated. People are stupid sometimes.

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Life in Kalamazoo

My mother thinks my father has gone insane, too. I'm glad it's not just me. We talked over how guilty he appears to feel about losing Brooke. She thinks that has fueled his drive to get another bichon puppy. I have to agree, but I also think a bichon will be a better match for them. Mitzi was such a good girl, with not nearly the amount of mischief as Brooke had. Anyway, the new one is named Cody, and will be coming a week from Wednesday on an airplane from Missouri.

Mom's been having issues at work. It sounded like her evaluation went okay and that she has set some good goals for the next year. Her boss, however, is a bit nutty, and asked her if she wanted to take on an intern who is about the same age as my mother is and is currently working someplace where they could accommodate him as an intern.

Mom is hoping to make a job change soon. Borgess Hospital is going to be doing some restructuring, and she's hoping to find a position there. It would probably be a much better situation for her. She doesn't want long-term clients anymore; she wants to get a question and answer it.

It's Good to Know that Americans Aren't the Only Idiots

In what has to be one of the most humorous clerical errors of the year, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Tweety Bird and Daffy Duck were ordered to take the stand in a court case against a man who produced counterfeit goods featuring the animated creatures.

Honestly, I was expecting this to have taken place somewhere in America. It's refreshing and reassuring to know that, at least, Italians are just as stupid as we are. Who honestly would have thought that there were people out there with these names, and that they needed to report to the court and testify? I'm guessing that someone's going to be reprimanded for this.

That said, I don't want them to be treated too harshly. It at least brought some humor to the news, and proves that everyone is capable of brain dysfunction. If I were him or her, I'd try pushing the humor aspect to my boss!

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Arthur C. Clarke Turned Ninety

One of the minds behind the communications satellite and 2001: A Space Odyssey has turned ninety. I can't believe he's lived this long! That movie is one of my favorites. HAL is probably one of the best unintentional villains I've ever seen on-screen. And my undergraduate field of geography wouldn't be anyplace without the use of satellites for remote sensing and GPS observation of the Earth. Happy birthday, Mr. Clarke!

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Leno and O'Brien

They shall return! The two are coming back after the new year without their writers.

This is disturbing, but it's decent that Leno, O'Brien, and Letterman have been paying their staff's salaries while in negotiations to bring them back. Letterman's even been paying the staff of Craig Ferguson's show, since his production company produces both. It'd be nice if the writers and management could agree on something; there are other people who depend on the income from television shows, like cameramen. I have a friend out in L.A., and I'm sure that she's had to ask her parents for financial help.

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